Featuring a young Sylvester Stallone alongside Michael Caine and a cavalcade of cameos from famous footballers, the original 1981 version of Escape to Victory is also known for featuring some of the hammiest performances ever seen on the big screen. Now footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones is planning a remake, starring himself and David Beckham, reports The Sun.

According to the newspaper, Jones hopes to involve Beckham in order to take advantage of the former England captain's fame in the US. The footballer would slip into the boots of predecessor Bobby Moore, who played Terry Brady in the original, if producers in LA give the movie the green light.

Escape to Victory was widely panned by the critics upon release, and bombed in the US, where it was known simply as Victory. Amongst its cast were former Brazil striker Pelé, Argentine midfielder Ossie Ardiles and a number of members of the Ipswich Town football side, then one of the leading teams in Europe.

The film centres on a group of allied PoWs who are interned in a German prison camp during the second world war. They plan to escape during a football game against the German national side in Paris, which is being held for propaganda purposes. But despite trailing at half-time, the players decide to wait until the end of the game before escaping after concluding that they have a chance of winning. The game ends in a 4-4 draw after the allied team are denied victory by some dubious refereeing decisions, and they escape during a pitch invasion which follows the full-time whistle.

Despite its hokey nature, Escape to Victory is regularly shown on British TV, with fans enjoying its mix of patriotic fervour and footballing celeb cameos. The film is itself a remake of a sort, being based on the Hungarian film Két félidő a pokolban (Two Half-times in Hell), which was directed by Zoltán Fábri and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston cinema festival. It was inspired by the true story of Dynamo Kiev's players, who defeated Nazi soldiers while Ukraine was occupied by Nazi troops in the second world war.